This is like choosing children... Blackbird is the first Alter Bridge album I heard. But I was really on board the Fortress hype train for the months/weeks leading up to release day during my one unsuccessful year of college. I'd say that album has become my favorite. The songs, the sound, the artwork, everything is killer.

My least favorite though, The Last Hero. I was chomping at the bit, pacing the cage awaiting this album. It fell totally flat for me at first. I've grown to love most of the tracks (fanboy), but the bloated production sours even some of the best musical moments...

Fortress is the proggier album. Its so dynamic, not really any filler, other than Cry A River, and the production is the best of all the AB records. Some of the best vocal work from Myles on here, the riffs are simply off the charts and I love the darker vibe of a lot of the songs. Also, Cry of Achilles.

Blackbird is just a rock masterpiece, and it has Ties That Bind, Watch Over You and Blackbird, some of the best tracks the band has ever wrote. The true introduction to what Alter Bridge is; every track has something special about it.

ABIII is in 2nd, but not too far behind.. I adore that album but its unnecessarily lengthy. If certain songs were cut, it would be tied for first. I like the bsides from ABIII much more than a couple songs that actually made the cut, but those sides are damn good songs in general. Words Darker Than Their Wings is half the reason I love this album so much.

ODR is a great album, but like others have said its really kind of a very Creed-esque album. It really is a beautiful piece of art. Plus, Myles voice was in top shape on this record. Every song belongs, I personally dont see any of it as "filler", which is not true for the other albums. Each track belongs, all of them are awesome in their own way, but its not really AB as we know it.

The Last Hero is last. As much I want to love it, I just dont feel a connection like I did with the other albums. The highest amount of filler, and it seems kind of unfocused if Im being completely honest. Its not a bad album, but it isn't great by AB standards. Its just good, with a little bit of great thrown in.

Fortress is a masterpiece, just perfection. The Last Hero I liked very much, too. Blackbird has some songs on it, I listened a few times but I don't consider them above (AB-)average (One by One, Break Me Down, Buried Alive, Rise Today). On ABIII, I loved WDTTW and Coeur d'Alene. One Day Remains is of course a very good record, too, but not as good as the rest

VigilantSteve wrote:I'm still surprised by the number of people here that dislike The Last Hero.

I'd rank it last, but I wouldn't say I dislike it. It's just missing something overall. The lyrics don't hit me very hard in comparison to the other records, the production makes the record sound too harsh at times, and the solos, while good from a technical standpoint, aren't as memorable to me on that album.

I actually do think it's a solid album. The title track is one of the best pieces they've ever written. Better production would've helped it a lot.

Each album has something that I like and dislike, so ranking them is really hard. But if I must...

1. Blackbird1a. Fortress3. One Day Remains4. ABIII5. The Last Hero

And even then, it pains me to rank ODR halfway down the list, but Blackbird and Fortress are just God-tier albums. The feel, the production, the performance, everything is top notch on those two albums. ODR is a beautiful masterpiece on its own, but as many have said, it's sort of its own beast with the band not really having come together to find its sound yet -- it's like the first Foo Fighters record essentially being just a Dave Grohl solo album, while The Colour and The Shape was the first "band" album. ABIII, I've said this before but I feel like the second half of the album just all sort of flows together and feels like a bit of filler, even though I love each song individually.

Then TLH... man, I want to love this album so bad. I'm a big fan of the political bite of the lyrics. The songs are big and bombastic. But listening to the album, it just gets overwhelming. Fatiguing. It's so in-your-face the whole time, and even when the music itself is dynamic, the production keeps the quiet parts filling the entire spectrum of sound. It makes me feel like Huey Lewis in Back To The Future.